


I know I'm not the only one

by Serenebelle



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Jet (Avatar) Is An Asshole, M/M, Sadly he doesn't get them in this fic, The Author Regrets Everything, Zuko (Avatar) Deserves Nice Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26772580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serenebelle/pseuds/Serenebelle
Summary: “Forever?” Zuko asked.“Forever.” Jet answered.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 59





	I know I'm not the only one

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own avatar or any of the characters involved in this work of fiction.
> 
> #endsars #Nigerianlivesmatter  
> #endpolicebrutality

If Zuko looks back, he knows he should have seen the signs. They weren’t super obvious but if he hadn’t been hopelessly blinded by love he thinks he would have noticed.

It starts small. Leaving the room to answer calls or ignoring them altogether. Then coming home each night later than the last. After a while it graduates to not coming home at all citing some work emergency or the other.

Hours spent waiting for Jet to come home or call.

It shows in their sex life or the lack of it. Jet always saying he’s tired or not in the mood. Whenever they do fuck, it’s hard and fast, over before Zuko can really appreciate it. Gone are the usual hours they spent lovemaking and cuddling .

At some point Zuko convinces himself that his husband no longer finds him attractive. That’s when he increases his visits to the gym and hires a beautician. Not that it changes anything because Jet is hardly ever home and when he is, he never seems to notice any of the effort he’s putting in.

Slowly the doubts start to creep into his head.

_“What if Jet was cheating?”_

_“What if he had someone else?”_

He’s quick to shut those thoughts down. He remembers something his uncle told him before he got married.

_“The foundation of every marriage is trust, Zuko.”_

Trust.

Jet is his husband. He would never hurt him like that.

~

_“Watch where you’re going!” Zuko yells as he feels the coffee that was going to be his lunch soak into his shirt. He’d already been having a rough day and getting knocked off his feet with his lunch dumped all over him definitely didn’t make it any better._

_“I’m so sorry, let me help you up.” He hears from above him and he looks up to find a hand outstretched towards him. He grabs it and he’s met with the deepest brown eyes he’s ever seen._

_“I’m sorry for hitting you, I was in a hurry.” The man smiles and Zuko notices how his eyes crinkle at the corners._

_“It’s okay.” Zuko replies through gritted teeth. He just wanted to go home and just throw the whole day in the dustbin. He tries to sidestep the stranger but the he realizes his hand is still held in a tight grip._

_“Hey, wait. Let me make it up to you. I’ll buy you another coffee.”_

_“No thank you.” Zuko declines ready to leave._

_“Please, It’s the least I could do.”_

_And against his better judgement, Zuko agrees._

_~_

_This is Jet, if you’re hearing this then I’m unavailable. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.”_

Zuko sits at a small dining table. Two places are set and there are two candles lit. He’s been trying to call Jet for hours but his phone keeps going unanswered. He had specially planned this dinner because he could feel how much the distance between him and his husband had grown over the past few weeks. He had pulled all the stops. A gourmet dinner, candles, wine and the lingerie he had worn during their honeymoon. He’d planned everything perfectly. Done everything right and yet Jet was not here.

He should be surprised but he isn’t.

When the clock hits 11pm, he stands up, puts out the candles and goes to bed.

He’s almost asleep when he hears the door to the room open and his husband steps inside. He hears him shuffle around in the room before he feels the weight of an arm around him.

He wants to shrug it off. To yell and start a fight but in that moment he feels an overwhelming exhaustion, so he closes his eyes and goes to sleep.

~

_Zuko knows he loves Jet months before he actually says anything to him._

_It’s not that he doesn’t want to tell him, it’s that he can’t._

_Being raised like he was, he understands that love is not just the cutesy stuff the rom-coms like to show. He understands that love is pain._

_Love is exposing yourself and allowing someone else to really see you. It’s giving someone the power to hurt you. He wants to do that with Jet but he’s been hurt in the past by people who have claimed to love him and he’s scared._

_He’s not brave like Jet who tells him he loves him every night before they go to bed._

_He’s frightened and weak just like his father said._

_He sees the disappointment in Jet’s eyes every time he doesn’t say it back and yet he’s still too afraid to do anything about it._

_“I love you.”_

_“I know.”_

_~_

In the days after the failed dinner, Zuko drinks more wine than he has ever drank before.

He feels pathetic; like the scorned housewives in the Korean-Dramas Uncle enjoyed watching. In a way he wasn’t much better than them. Scared to confront a husband that he’s almost certain (very certain) is cheating on him. Holding on to ghosts of the past and trying to keep faith in a person, in a relationship that’s already lost.

He’s pathetic and he knows it.

He spends weeks watching videos they had accumulated over the years. It becomes cathartic in a way to watch younger versions of themselves with their whole lives ahead of them. A Jet whose whole world had been Zuko and a Zuko who had all he’d ever wanted.

One of the rare nights that Jet is home, Zuko is so drunk that he can’t even sit straight.

“How much have you had to drink?” Jet asks with his eyebrow raised. He looks equal parts amused and disgusted.

“Just a bit.” Zuko slurs pinching his thumb and index fingers together.

“I can’t believe this.”

“What? What can’t you believe?!” Zuko yells. Forcing his body into an upright position.

“That with all the time I spend working my ass of to provide for us, to give us… to give you a better life, you’re here getting needlessly drunk.” Jet says, calm voice hiding how agitated he is.

“Oh cut the bullshit. I don’t need you to provide for me, I don’t need your money.”

“Of course. Little rich boy. Money has never been your problem.”

Zuko's previously calm face morphs in to pure rage.

“Wow Jet. Wow. Even after all the time we've been together, you’re still insecure about my family. If you couldn’t handle it- handle being with me, why did you marry me then?”

“I’m sorry. Okay? I just, it’s been a pretty tough week.” Jet says apologetically, he extends his hand across the table and grabs onto Zuko's clenched fist. Zuko yanks his hand out of the other man’s grip and continues eating as if his husband had said nothing at all.

He doesn’t look up to see the look in Jet’s eyes but he knows he’ll fine no love there.

~

_It comes as a surprise to almost everyone in their lives but it’s Zuko who proposes marriage. And more surprising is how grand of a proposal it is. There’re balloons, rose petals, cakes, confetti and it’s beautiful and romantic. Everything that Zuko wasn’t but was willing to be for the love of his life. His speech as he goes down on one knee in front of an audience of all their friends and family is cheesy but he knows it would make Jet smile._

_“Jet, my love. I know I don’t say it as often as I should but you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me and I want to spend the rest of my life proving it to you. You’ve been patient with me, kind to me, strong for me and I can’t imagine what my life would be like without you. I don’t want to imagine it. I just- I love you. A lot. Please do me the honour of being my husband?” Zuko wants to memorize the look in Jet eyes. He wants to fall asleep to that look and wake up to it._

_“Yes… Yes. Oh my god Yes.” Jet laughs and cries (It’s unclear as to which it is.) pulling Zuko into his arms._

_“I love you Zuko.” He says as he kisses him to the whoops and applause from the people around them._

_~_

The day it finally comes to a head, Zuko wasn’t even planning it. It’s a Monday morning and Jet is getting ready for work. He’s at the stove making them breakfast when Zuko comes in.

“Do you want some eggs?” Jet asks as Zuko sits at the island.

It’s domestic. The whole scene is so normal, like everything is fine, like they aren’t falling apart at the seams.

“Who is it?” Jet turns to look at him over his shoulder. He looks confused, like he doesn’t know what he’s done.

“Who is what?”

“The person you’re cheating on me with. Who is it?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Jet turns fully to him, eggs abandoned on the stove.

“Please don’t make it worse by playing dumb. Just tell me who it is.” Jets face falls and for a second he looks faint.

“Is it someone I know? Someone from work?” Zuko stands up and starts pacing the kitchen, he suddenly feels much too large for his own skin.

“It’s Jane.”

Zuko remembers Jane. She started working as Jet’s secretary over a year ago. He remembers meeting her for the first time, her big brown eyes and scarless face. He remembers the smile on her face as she shook his hand the first time they met; waving at her from the car the last time he attended a company dinner. For some reason the confirmation from Jets mouth makes all the strength leave his body. He doesn’t understand why he’s surprised, he already knew what was coming but there was a small part of him that still didn’t want to believe it.

“Please, babe let me explain.” Jet says, arms outstretched to touch the other man, but Zuko backs away. He doesn’t want those hands on him.

Suddenly Zuko’s despair turns to anger.

“Babe?! Babe?! How dare you?” He can feel the angry tears rushing to his eyes and he quickly looks up to keep them at bay. He had wanted to be strong but it’s probably too late for that now.

“After everything we’ve been through. After all these years.”

“I’m sorry. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Do you love her?”

“I love _you_ ”

“How long?”

“Zuko, _please_.”

“How long?!” Zuko yells.

“A year.” Zuko feels his already broken heart shatter. He remembers all the nights he spent waiting, cooking food that would only be thrown away. The beauty products he had suddenly started using all to keep a man that he had already lost.

“I must’ve-” Zuko’s voice cracks on a sob. “I must have looked so stupid. Waiting here for you every day while you were busy fucking someone else behind my back.”

“Zuko… darling… please.” Jet begs. His hands are still stretched towards his husband but he doesn’t move closer.

“Did you sit in your office with her laughing at me? Poor stupid Zuko… Can’t even see what’s right in front of him.”

“No of course not. It wasn’t like that.”

Before Zuko can stop himself, he’s flinging a glass at his husband who miraculously manages to dodge just in time for it to hit the wall behind him and shatter.

The silence that follows that action is deafening. Jet tentatively moves towards him. He can feel his hands shaking.

“Zuko, I’m so sorry. I love you so much… please.”

“I can’t do this anymore Jet.” Zuko all dressed up in his pyjamas and robe, with his face puffed up from crying leaves the house then. He doesn’t know where he’s going but he knows he has to leave.

~

_“Forever?” Zuko asked._

_“Forever.” Jet answered._

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so after the angstfest I wrote the last time, I wanted to write something fluffy but as you can see I failed woefully. The idea just refused to leave me so here you go. While it's not evident in this fic, I actually believe that Jet was a victim of his circumstances and that had he been raised in an ideal situation he would have ended up as a mostly okay person, maybe just a bit of a fuckboy.  
> Some of the songs I listened to while writing this include:-  
> I know I'm not the only one - Sam Smith (the title)  
> You're Somebody Else - Flora Cash  
> Moral of the Story - Ashe  
> and Magic Shop - Bts (It has nothing to do with the plot, it just helps me write. :D)u
> 
> You can say hi to me on tumblr http://serenebell.tumblr.com/ here.


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